


Femslash February: Lilanette Edition

by breeeliss



Series: Femslash February 2017 [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU of Volpina Episode, Banter, Bonding, Dating, F/F, Flirting, Friendship, Homesickness, Post-Volpina
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-09-27 10:51:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10015703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breeeliss/pseuds/breeeliss
Summary: A collection of drabbles and one shots devoted to Lila and Marinette in honor of Week 3 of Femslash February 2017.2/15 - Baking: As far as apology presents went, Lila figured that opera cakes were a pretty safe option.2/16 - Tea Party: Bougie, elitist tea parties tend to be more fun when you add in some good, old-fashioned flirting.2/17 - Glitter: Lila's been hard at work one a do-it-yourself project, and it's caught Marinette's attention.2/18 - Autumn: The switch from summer to autumn was when Lila’s homesickness had gotten the worst.2/19 - Movies: It's Lila's first day at school, but she's not particularly interested in flirting with Adrien Agreste.





	1. Baking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As far as apology presents went, Lila figured that opera cakes were a pretty safe option.

Lila decided that opera cakes were a pretty safe option to go with. 

She only ever visited Paris once in her life before moving here -- a short vacation away from Sicily when her mom was still around and her father hadn’t started moving around for work yet -- and one of the few things she remembered was the small box of opera cakes they’d gotten at a bakery. They were cut into neat three square centimeter pieces, and for six year old Lila, they were the closest thing to tiramisu that France had. 

It was a silly thing from her childhood, but it was an honest and sincere piece of her that seemed like the perfect thing to try and give back to others. Not that anyone would necessarily _know_  that, but it was the thought that counted. So she’d gone into a quaint bakery right across the street from school and ordered two boxes of opera cakes with hyacinths and white chocolate designs drawn on the tops. Maybe the whole flower symbolism thing was a little heavy handed, but Lila could use all the help she could get at this point. 

On the day when she was meant to pick them up, Lila’s nerves had made her get on the bus sooner than she meant to and catch the bakery only five minutes after it opened. She squinted through the glass and past the Tom & Sabine’s logos painted on the door, seeing no one inside. After jiggling the knob and knocking a couple of times yielded no answer, she contemplated walking off her overeagerness in the park nearby and trying not to hype up something as innocuous as pastries in her head. But, right as she was about to leave, a small figure quickly sped around the counter inside, fiddled with the keys in their hands, and pushed the door open. 

“Sorry about that! We’re still prepping and we don’t usually get customers quite this -- _Lila?”_  


Lila blinked at the young girl standing in front of her and immediately recognized her from her class. She floundered for a bit and tried to remember her name. “U-Um....it’s Marinette, right?”

“Yeah,” Marinette breathed out. “Uh...hi? What are you doing here so early?”  


“What are _you_  doing here?” Lila countered. “Do you work here or something?”  


“Sort of,” Marinette shrugged. “This is my parents’ bakery. I help prep all the orders and fill the display cases on Tuesday and Thursday mornings before I head off to school. Didn’t even get to unlock the door yet.”  


Lila nodded slowly. “Right....” To be honest, she never really spoke to Marinette and didn’t know much about her. She was their class representative, she was always doodling in class, and she was often late in the mornings, zipping into her seat just before the period started. Aside from that, nothing. It also didn’t help that this was the first time they’d really spoken to each other. Then again, with the exception of her first day here, she didn’t really talk to anyone in her class anymore. The glares and whispers were enough to sufficiently abscond her to the fringes of their class dynamic. The worst part was that she couldn’t even blame them all for it. 

She sighed, deciding to save herself the awkwardness. “I’ll just come back later then. When your parents are around.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Marinette assured. “I was about to open up anyway. You can come in.”

“Are...are you sure?”  


“Yes, of course. One customer is hardly anything.”  


Lila hesitated at the threshold until she decided that she really didn’t have a good excuse for meandering around outside until anyone other than one of her classmates came to help her. Besides, the longer her order sat there, the quicker her resolve started to leave her, and she couldn’t afford to chicken out over something so important. 

The smell of fresh bread cooking in the ovens behind the counter immediately hit her as Lila walked in, Marinette fiddling with her keys and locking the door again behind her. “Yeah, sorry it’s so hot in here,” Marinette apologized. “All the ovens are going. Let me know if you want me to open more windows.”

Lila’s lips quirked up in a small smile. “It’s fine, don’t worry.”

Marinette bounced back behind the register and leaned her elbows on the counter. “What can I get you?”

Lila shuffled around in her bag for a receipt. “I’m here to pick up a pastry order? I have the order number right here.”

She passed off the slip of paper and Marinette nodded as she scanned the receipt. “Huh, so you were the opera cake order. Two boxes of nine, right?”

“That’s the one.”  


Marinette peeked behind the counter. “I don’t think they’re decorated yet. I was going to do that right before you showed up. Do you mind waiting about fifteen minutes?”

Lila shrugged. “School doesn’t start for a while. I can wait.”

She leaned against the counter and waited for Marinette to disappear into the ktichens and carefully bring out two pink pastry boxes each filled with nine neat squares of opera cakes, the layers of chocolate, ganache, and sponge cake looking positively immaculate. Lila stared at the chocolate layers on top of each and blinked when she saw a delicate “I’m Sorry” meticulously signed with white chocolate in the upper left corner of each square. 

Lila raised a brow and stared at Marinette who was filling a piping bag with purple frosting. “Is it too late to change my mind? I think the apology on top of each might be a bit too much.” 

“I mean,” Marinette hesitated. “If they’re for who I think they’re for, any little nudge helps.”

“Yeah,” Lila muttered. “I guess you’re right...”  


They stayed silent while Marinette prepared the piping bag and worked the frosting towards the tip. “Hibiscus flowers you said, right?”

Lila nodded silently and watched Marinette pipe out small, delicate dollops of frosting on the corners opposite the written apology, creating a small wreath of flowers to wrap up along the sides for good measure. She supposed it made sense that Marinette would be so quick and precise with her decorating, what with being an artist and all. Lila was sure that she was the one who had so beautifully written the words into the chocolate layer on top, not properly comprehending how much concentration and delicacy that must have taken. She wondered if all the decorated cakes in the windows were done by Marinette too. 

“So,” Marinette said conversationally. “This for our class?”  


Lila rubbed one of her temples. “That’s the idea....”

“But?” Marinette prompted.   


“But this might not work,” she said quietly. “Our class isn’t exactly thrilled with me, you know. One word about that Ladyblog interview being fake and the whole tower just came crumbling down.”  


Marinette twisted her mouth in response, stopping to wipe the nozzle of the bag. “So I heard...”

“It’s not much but. I figured you can’t go wrong with sweets.”  


Marinette peeked up at Lila through her lashes. “If you don’t mind my asking...you’ve been here for close to two weeks. Why are you apologizing now?”

Lila shrugged. “You’ve gotta crack at some point. Or have you not noticed that most people are doing nothing but gossip about me behind my back?”

“Better late than never?”  


“Exactly.”  


Marinette finished off her designs for one box and paused to close it and wrap it up with string before she moved on to decorating the rest. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I didn’t think you’d apologize.”

Lila snorted. “I’m not a monster you know.”

“Didn’t say you were,” Marinette defended quickly. “Just that. Well, after you got caught, everyone started avoiding you and you seemed to want to keep it that way. Like you didn’t try to defend yourself or anything.”  


“I mean there was nothing to defend myself with,” Lila replied, figuring that if Marinette was the only person that had bothered to engage her in a conversation this long in two weeks, it wouldn’t hurt to vent to her just a little bit for the sake of relief. “Everyone knew, and they hated me for all that stuff I made up. I wasn’t trying to make people mad at me, but that’s how they took it.”  


“What did you mean by it?”  


Attention. Admiration. Friendship. Community. Security. A life raft in this strange city she was forced to move to and in this school filled with people she didn’t know. “Who knows?” Lila replied instead. “People do stupid things all the time. But I feel bad about it.”

“Bad because you know it was wrong, or bad because you got caught?”  


Lila smirked humorlessly. “Is it bad if I say both?”

Marinette chuckled. “Not bad. Just honest. Which I guess is refreshing considering your track record.”

It sounded like a very subtle joke, if that, but Lila smiled in response.

It didn’t take long for Marinette to finish the decorations, package the last box, and ring up the order. She was swiping Lila’s card and waiting for the machine to spit out the receipt when she asked, “What comes after this?”

Lila signed the receipt and handed it back to Marinette as she carefully picked up both boxes. “I guess I’m playing this by ear. If this doesn’t work, I guess I’ll have to try something else.”

“You think it’s worth it to try again?”  


“You really underestimate how much it sucks to be ignored by everyone around you.”  


“I mean maybe I do,” Marinette conceded, “but I understand that it’s objectively awful. I don’t blame you for doing what you have to do to smooth out the waters. I’d be doing the same and then some.”

Lila’s fingers were tangling in the box strings. “So would everyone else. I’m not special.” No, she finally decided. She wasn’t special. Not at all. No amount of clever lies and ridiculous promises could ever make that untrue. 

“Everyone else wouldn’t be sincere about it,” Marinette countered. “I mean, I know you’re doing it to save your reputation. But I think you also mean it.”  


“And how do you know that?”  


Marinette grinned. “Just a gut feeling. My gut is never wrong.”

Lila chuckled. “I’m starting to understand why you’re our class rep.”

“Guilty as charged.”  


She could feel the conversation beginning to taper off, so she clutched the boxes tighter to her chest and started to back up towards the front door. “Well. Thanks. For the treats. I guess I’ll see you in class later.”

“Mmhm,” Marinette said. “See you soon.”  


Lila balanced on her toes awkwardly for a few seconds before heading back out into the cool autumn air. She was about to ease the door closed with her foot when Marinette called out again from the counter. “Oh, and Lila?”

“What now?”  


“I accept your apology.”  


Lila blinked at the sight of Marinette smiling sweetly behind the counter, and she suddenly got the sense that Marinette was one of those selfless, optimistic types that would always hope for greener grass and better days when she woke up to a new morning. That kind of positivity always puzzled Lila, and always made her hyperaware of the caution and cynicism she herself held towards other people, as if she already knew what they were going to say about her before they even opened their mouths. But Marinette’s feelings were written all over her face, and Lila supposed that it was rather encouraging to see that at least someone in her class was sincere enough to let her know that she was forgiven. 

“That’s...” Lila breathed out. “Reassuring. Thanks.”  


“No problem,” Marinette said. “Careful crossing the street with those.”  


Lila nodded absently and walked to the corner, waiting at the edge of the sidewalk for the walk signal to blink on. She turned her head, looked back to see Marinette dancing around the shop and filling the display cases with more pastries, and chortled into her scarf. 

Strange girl. Sweet though. Lila could live with strange and sweet. 


	2. Tea Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bougie, elitist tea parties tend to be more fun when you add in some good, old-fashioned flirting.

Chloe Bourgeois hosted “tea parties” at her hotel every year during the Spring. 

“Tea parties” in quotes only because, in Lila’s humble opinion, it was a load of crap meant for Chloe and all of the other rich girls she knew to come together, compare dresses, sip overpriced imported tea, and gossip about mundane drivel that no one cared about but pretended to anyway so that they wouldn’t lose face. No one in class was ever invited to it, and no one cared for an invitation in the first place.   


That being said, Lila overheard Sabrina mentioning that the brunch was catered by a five star restaurant, and she figured that was a good enough reason to crash the party. 

So Lila looked through her closet for the nicest teatime dress she owned, did some clever Facebook and Instagram stalking, and walked up to Le Grand Paris thinking stuffy, elitist, and boorish thoughts the entire time through. 

“Oh, I don’t have an invitation,” Lila said sweetly to the girl handling the guest list at the door. “I left the silly thing in the front seat with my driver. But Colette knows me! We met at her sixteenth birthday last year. The one she did at her grandmother’s country house? You were there, weren’t you? Oh, she had this _absolutely_  charming lavender theme, and she handed out lavender springs with personalized messages attached to each of them. Look! I still have mine!”

Lila had never met any of these girls in her entire life, but the good thing about rich people was that they’d rather pretend that they knew you (even if they didn’t) instead of daring to admit to someone potentially important that they didn’t remember them. 

Which meant that if you were an excellent liar, you could essentially squeeze your way into any social event for kicks.   


Lila was accepted in easily, managed to steal some expensive party favors, grabbed a plate full of delicious food, and drew enjoyment from the ridiculousness of the whole affair. Chloe walked by just as Lila was having a conversation with a stranger about Angelique’s _amazing_  birthday cruise that Lila did not actually go on. The look of fury on her face was priceless, and Lila knew she wouldn’t dare make a scene in front of all her guests and try to kick her out. Siege successful!

She moved towards the back of room where all the cookies and pastries were when she saw a familiar face sitting alone by the window, sipping on a cup of tea. Lila raised a brow, figured this would work as decent entertainment, and took the seat next to her. 

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I doubt very much you were extended an invitation to this nonsense,” Lila smirked.   


Marinette shook her head and placed her cup and saucer on the window sill behind her. “Hell no. This isn’t my idea of fun. Didn’t think it was yours either. Why and how are you here?”

Lila shrugged. “Got bored. Lied my way in. Just wanted some of the ritzy catering. You?”

She popped a bite-sized cupcake into her mouth. “My parents and I made all the pastries. The bakery Chloe usually uses messed up her order last minute. She came begging for a rush order, so I blackmailed her into giving me an invitation.”

Lila snorted and bumped elbows with her. “Impressive.”

“Figured I might as well see what all the hype was about. It’s like watching a bunch of martians.”  


Lila chortled into her tea cup and tried to keep from bringing attention to the two of them in their small corner. Lila liked Marinette. Sweet girl, incredibly loud and confident, hilarious, and didn’t take any garbage from anyone, especially Chloe. She was also the first one to go out on a limb and try to befriend Lila after the debacle that was her first day of school after everyone found out about her fabulous stretch of lying. She probably had Marinette to thank for the fact that she wasn’t a social pariah at the moment. 

She was still trying to work out if that little crush Marinette had on Adrien was still serious or even existent so she could swoop in and ask her out on a date, but so far results were inconclusive. Oh well. Something to work on. 

“I’m just so exhausted by them all,” Lila said. “They walk around sounding so fake, talking about dinners that never happened with boring people they’ve never met, and trying to act all prim and proper while doing it. How do they not go crazy?”

“This coming from the person who seamlessly snuck in here by pretending to be just like them,” Marinette smirked. 

“It’s not difficult to pretend to have the personality of a shoebox,” Lila replied. “Besides, if you’re gonna lie about yourself, at least make it interesting. This is ridiculously dull.”  


“Oh I’m with you,” Marinette laughed. “I’m here for curiosity’s sake only. Although, can I be honest?”  


“By all means.”  


Marinette crossed her leg over her knee, turned her body towards Lila, and muttered, “I almost want to do something totally inappropriate and stupid just so I can ruffle their feathers and get kicked out.”

Lila raised a brow and absently handed off her cup to the hotel staff moving through the party. “You’ve captured my interest. Any ideas?”

“I don’t know, what’s something a bunch of sheltered, rich, boring girls who go to bougie tea parties would find scandalous?”  


Lila tapped her fingers against her lips and gave Marinette a wicked smirk. “What would happen if I started flirting with one of them?”

Marinette had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing too loud. “You’re gonna get smacked. Or yelled at. Or reported.”

“For appreciating the female form? That’s ridiculous.”  


“It’s _improper,”_ Marinette teased.   


Lila grinned and slung an arm around the back of Marinette’s chair. “What’s so improper about one girl hitting on another girl? It’s the most natural thing in the world.”

Marinette’s eyes darted towards Lila’s arm, and for a moment Lila was afraid she might have gone too far with her teasing, but then Marinette crossed her leg over her knee and draped it across Lila’s lap. “I don’t think it’s an issue with it being two girls. This just doesn’t strike me as the place to come and work on your pick up lines or start being all touchy feel-y.”

Lila bit her lip and walked her fingers up Marinette’s leg, pushing the fabric of her dress up to her knee. “What? Touchy feel-y like this?”

“Mm, I don’t think so.” Marinette reached to brush Lila’s hair away from her shoulder, slowly slid her hand across her shoulder, and rested it gently on the back of her neck. “Touchy feel-y like _this_.”  


Her hand on her skin made Lila shiver, and she briefly looked off to the side to see the wary glances they were getting from the girls standing near them. “Hey, look. An audience. We’re getting warmer.”

Marinette tipped up her chin and winked. “We certainly are.”

Lila chuckled. “Boo. Cheesy.”

“What? That was pretty good.”  


“That was _awful_.”  


“Alright,” Marinette huffed. “Well then you do better.”  


“Oh no, there’s no way I could possible do better.” She picked up Marinette’s hand, brought it up to her lips, and left a kiss in the middle of her palm. “I could scour this entire party and not find anything quite as pleasant as your company.”  


Marinette inhaled and bit the corner of her lip without looking like she meant to, and that made Lila’s brows shoot up. She started to wonder if they were still joking around. “ _That_  was cheesy.”

“Alright, fine, that one was bad,” Lila admitted. “Pick-up lines aren’t my strong suit.”  


“Well, pick-up lines don’t impress me. A pretty face and witty banter does.”  


Lila’s other hand was busy tracing lazy circles on Marinette’s leg, and she could feel Marinette pressing it harder on her lap. Delusions about Marinette’s straightness started to fly out the window. “I can be witty.”

“For me? Oh how sweet.”   


“I mean, this _is_  a matter of flirty seduction, so technically all of this is for you. Is it working?”  


Marinette’s eyes darted to the whispers that were now starting to crop up around them and leaned in closer until her lips were just brushing up against the shell of Lila’s ear, close enough to whisper. “It’s working.”

The logical part of Lila’s head was saying that Marinette meant their plan to disrupt the mood of the party was working. And that was true. People were turning their backs, muttering behind their hands, and going so far as to go into the other rooms so as to avoid having to see the two of them draped over each other. But surely, if you weren’t interested in someone, you wouldn’t work this hard to flirt with them, would you? Lila certainly wouldn’t, at least not as a joke, and Marinette didn’t seem like the type of person to play those sorts of games. Besides, Lila could recognize interest in someone’s eyes if she looked hard enough, and there was no mistaking that Marinette was _interested._

Damn. She should’ve asked her out ages ago. 

Lila turned her head until and whispered against the skin on Marinette’s jaw. “So, uh, crazy question. Do you want to....?”

“Go?” Marinette whispered back.   


“Yeah,” Lila breathed out. “I know a nice café nearby? I’d be happy to pay.”  


Marinette hummed in appreciation. “That sounds nice.”

Lila cleared her throat and figured if she had gotten this far, she might as well pull out all the stops. “My, uh....my father. Isn’t home. Gone for the weekend on business. Just. Casual piece of information.”

Marinette leaned away from her so that she could stare at her directly. “Is this you trying to be subtle?”

Lila rolled her eyes. “Do you blame me? Still a little bit shocked that you’re actually taking me seriously.”

“You find that shocking?”  


“Straight until proven otherwise is usually my mantra.”  


Marinette shrugged. “Well, this party is horribly dull, you have been incredibly entertaining, and I’ve thought you were gorgeous for well over a year. So I’d be happy to ‘prove you otherwise.’”

Lila whistled. “Wow. That would’ve been nice to know ages ago.”

“No time like the present.” Marinette’s eyes darted to the left and Lila watched her entire face fall. “And I mean the immediate present. I think that’s Chloe coming around the corner.”

Lila groaned at the sight of the blonde angrily stalking towards them and quickly pulled the two of them up from their seats. “Alrighty then, hasty exit stage left.”

They hurried around a huge display of pastries set in the middle of the room and made their way towards the door while Marinette plucked a few tins of tea leaves from the tables as she went, figuring that Chloe wouldn’t miss them. They kept their heads down as they passed the hotel staff and pushed their way through the revolving doors, collapsing into hysterics once they were out on the sidewalk. Lila placed a hand on Marinette’s lower back and started taking them in the direction of the café she had in mind. “Well, that’s one way to land a date.”

Marinette looped her arm with Lila’s and snorted. “If this is what flirting with you is going to be like from now on, this is set to be pretty interesting.”


	3. Glitter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila's been hard at work one a do-it-yourself project, and it's caught Marinette's attention.

Their visual arts teacher lets Marinette stay after school to sketch with the graphite pencils and charcoals in exchange for Marinette cleaning all the paint brushes at the end of the day. She forgets that she used to be an artist before she dipped into designing, and sometimes it’s nice to take a break and sketch things other than clothes for a change. Besides, it’s been a while since she’s sketched with charcoals, and Nathanael already keyed her onto which cabinets to check for the best sets. 

She’s in the middle of draining the sink and laying out all the paint brushes to dry when, like clockwork, Lila slips into the classroom and heads right for the shelves in the back of the room where all the containers of glitter, glues, and sealants are kept. 

Marinette has her earbuds in and nods at Lila who gives a very small smile and tips her chin up in return. Marinette washes her hands, grabs the good charcoal set, and sits on the window sill to try and sketch out the buildings and sidewalks just outside. Lila sets out old newspapers across one of the art tables and starts to pull out five or so glass mason jars from her bag. Just as usual, they both work in silence. 

She watches from the corner of her eye as Lila paints glue onto the outside of one of her jars, dusts glitter over the entire surface until it’s a shimmering gold, and passes over it with sealant before she leaves it to dry and repeats the process over again. Marinette has been trying to figure out what Lila has been working on for the past two weeks, but she is at a loss for what you could possibly need so many jars decorated in glitter for. 

Sometimes Lila comes in with close to ten jars, all different sizes, and spends the entire time coating the outside of them in gold, silver, yellow, and orange. There are a couple of days where she doesn’t decorate them at all -- just fills them with water and glitter, screws them shut, and sits on the window across from Marinette just turning it over in her hands and watching the contents swirl around like a snow globe. One time, instead of jars, Lila came in with lightbulbs and coated them in glitter instead. 

She can’t help but ask Nathanael the next day if they share the same visual arts block together. Maybe it’s just a project that she’s spending extra time on. 

"We're in the same class, but we’re doing watercolors right now,” Nathanael frowned. “Whatever she’s doing doesn’t sound like anything our teacher would’ve assigned.”  


“That’s an awful lot of work to be putting into something that she’s just doing for fun,” Marinette thought aloud.   


“To be fair, I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on in her head,” Nathanael shrugged. “Ever since everyone found out about her fake Ladybug interview, she sort of just keeps to herself. Your guess is as good as mine.”  


It isn’t her place to intrude on matters that are really none of her business. She’s sure the only reason that Lila has been willing to share this space with her the entire time is because Marinette commits to honoring the very clear desire to be left alone that Lila constantly exudes. But there are brief moments when Marinette can feel Lila’s eyes staring at the sketches in her book and following her fingers as they smudge the lines she makes across the page. Their eyes only ever catch a couple of times, and when they do Lila quickly ducks her head down to stare at her work, leaving Marinette to let her eyes linger as she coats glue over what looks to be old Christmas ornaments. 

There is so much melancholy mixed in with the prickly attitude she puts up -- like she wants to be left alone but also wishes that someone would reach out and interrupt the space. It mixes in terribly with the lingering guilt that Marinette feels at having embarrassed Lila in front of Adrien, even if Lila doesn’t know that it was Marinette who had done the scolding. It makes her want to work for a resolution -- some neat, happy ending that’ll end this longing dance they’ve created around each other. 

So one afternoon, when she takes a break from sketching long ball gowns on the people she sees walking around outside the window, she asks, “Have you ever thought of doing designs?”

They are so used to the silence that usually hangs between then that Marinette’s voice echoes rather loudly and makes Lila’s head pop up in shock. She takes a moment to scrutinize Marinette, as if she’s trying to discern her sincerity from across the room, and it gives Marinette an excuse to stare at the small grains of glitter stuck in Lila’s hair and against the apples of her cheeks. “Sorry?”

Marinette flips her sketchbook back two pages and finds some of the doodles she left there during class this afternoon. She slides down from the windowsill and pushes the sketchbook across the table. “You know, designs. Stuff like this.”

Lila’s brows lift as she stares at the swirls, waves, and curls that Marinette has doodled across the page. “Um....no, I guess not,” she mutters. 

“Might be cool to try,” Marinette smiles. “Instead of just coating the whole thing in one color. I-I mean, unless that’s not what you’re going for. If it’s not, then never mind. I just realized I don’t really know what you’re doing. Which is fine. But I guess....”

She realizes she’s rambling only after Lila’s hesitant frown turns into a smile and slowly melts into a bright laughter -- the first time Marinette’s ever seen her laugh since they’ve met. She decides she likes how it makes Lila’s cheeks blush and shows all of her teeth. “Those designs look cool,” she agrees. “But I’m not actually that artistic. I don’t think I could do something like that.”

“I could help you,” Marinette says. “If you use stencils, it’ll actually be pretty easy. Of course, only if you want to. I don’t mean to impose.”  


Lila shrugs. “I don’t want to bother you....”

“I’m not doing anything too important.”  


She snorts in amusement and gives Marinette a smile that’s so different from the short, polite one she’s been accustomed to giving thus far -- warmer, wider, and more sincere. “If you want to help, I guess that’d be nice.”

Lila makes it sound like she doesn’t care either way, so Marinette grabs some cardboard sheets from the shelves, sketches out a few of her doodles onto the sheets, and uses an x-acto knife from the drawers under the tables to cut out the stencil. She takes one of Lila’s jars, wraps the stencil around, sprays on one of the adhesives she has out, and sprinkles a dusting of orange glitter across the surface. Marinette peels it off and reveals a beautiful design of orange wrapping around the entire surface of the jar. Marinette hands it back to Lila who stares at it with her mouth formed into a shocked ‘o.’

“That came out so clean,” Lila breathes out. “It’s pretty.”

Marinette grins. “If you seal that bit and then put glue around the design, you can make the background another color.”

Something lights up in Lila’s eyes, because suddenly she’s pulling -- _wow_ , close to twelve mason jars out of her extra bag and lining them all up on the table. “Could I borrow that stencil?”

The excitement is infectious, and suddenly Marinette is grabbing more sheets of cardboard. “Yeah. I can make you a checkerboard one next if you want. Might look cool.” 

She suddenly stops and starts shaking her head. “O-Oh, you don’t have to help or anything. This is just for me....it’s....” Lila pauses and swallows back the answer. “Anyway, you don’t have to help.”

“I mean, if you’re willing, I’d be happy to,” Marinette insists. “You’ve been working on all this for so long, I want to help you finish.”  


They both stay after school a lot longer than they ever had before. Lila pulls out the rest of the light bulbs she has in her bag and Marinette starts making stencils of hearts, stars, and polka dots that she sprays onto the surface and covers into glitter. Lila is across from her experimenting with making gradients of two and three different colors on the surface of each jar. Eventually, Marinette pulls the headphone jack out of her cell phone and lets her music play out of her phone’s speakers so that they both have some noise to fill the silence around them. Lila looks like she’s not used to the upbeat, pop music that Marinette is partial to, but eventually they both get into a rhythm where they’re painting and spraying and rocking to the rhythm of the songs that spill from the speakers. They aren’t particularly talkative, but Marinette doesn’t mind that too much. Lila is flipping through her sketchbook for inspiration and humming absently to the music, and it’s far more than the thirty second conversation that Marinette had been hoping for when she spoke in the first place. 

It takes only a couple of hours for there to be a long line of glittery bulbs and jars neatly lined up along the table, ready to dry in the art room overnight. Lila pours all the excess glitter back into the jars and walks up to another windowsill where her jars from yesterday have already finished drying. She’s loading them into her bag when Marinette offers to help her take them home. 

“You really don’t have to do that,” Lila says as a gentle insistence rather than a demand.   


“It’s no trouble,” Marinette assures. “You don’t live too far from the school, right? I see you walk to school everyday.”  


Lila looks like she wants to protest, but Marinette must look rather eager because Lila relents and shrugs her shoulders, pushing a line of about six jars in her direction. “If you could take these, that’d be a help I guess.”

It’s only a fifteen minute walk to Lila’s apartment, and it’s one that’s spent mostly in comfortable silence. They push through the three floor walk-up, and Lila has to shimmy her house key a couple of times in the lock of the door before it pops open and reveals a quaint apartment that’s not much larger than Marinette’s. She respectfully takes her shoes off before she pads across the carpeted floors, and looks around to see cardboard boxes and plastic storage bins stacked around the living room. 

“Sorry about the mess,” Lila sighs out. The sun’s already started going down, so Lila moves around the apartment and starts turning on all the lamps and closing the blinds. “Papa and I haven’t finished unpacking yet.”   


“It’s fine,” Marinette says. She briefly remembers Mme. Bustier telling her that Lila had moved here from Sicily with her father, and that it was important as Class Representative to help her adjust to the new country and the new environment. “Is he here?”  


“He works late,” Lila says, dropping her books on the couch in the corner. She juts her chin to the back of the apartment. “You can just put it down in my room and I’ll sort through it later.”  


Marinette takes the paper bag filled with Lila’s glitter jars and follows her into her bedroom. She isn’t quite sure what she was expecting when she walks inside, but it certainly isn’t dozens upon dozens of jars, bulbs, mugs, and ornaments all coated in glitter of all different colors. They are sitting on her windowsills, her desk, her bedside table, hanging on the walls, sitting on her bookshelves, and covering every available surface that her room can provide. Marinette walks over to one of her windows and peeks inside of the glitter-covered jars and sees that they have candles sitting inside of them. “Is this what you’ve been working on?”

Lila pulls a long line of fairy lights from behind her bed and nods. “Yeah. Not quite done yet though. You can help me if you want.”

Lila had poked holes into the lids of the jars she’d decorated, leaving just enough room for the lights to feed into the jar, feed back out, and feed into the next one. Marinette helps her push the lights inside the jars while Lila starts lighting the candles in the jars on her bookshelf. When they’re both done, Lila shuts the blinds, closes her bedroom door, and starts plugging in all the wires around her room. 

The effect is breathtaking. Everywhere she looks the jars are glowing and shimmering against all the glitter wrapped around the outsides, turning each one into a sparking globe floating like a star against the darkness of her room. All the Christmas ornaments and bulbs are hanging along her walls, tangled with more lines of fairy lights to make the glitter covered bulbs shine brighter against Lila’s otherwise bare walls. Marinette looks down to see Lila sitting on the carpet in the middle of her room and decides to sit down next to her. From down here, everything feels mystical and surreal -- almost like a calming, beautiful, and magical world that’s contained within the four walls of her room. Marinette almost wants to lay down and fall asleep counting all the lights, staring at their warm glow until she falls into a smooth sleep with dreams filled with floating lights and glimmering space. She feels calm and at peace, and suddenly she hopes that Lila will let her stick around for a while. 

“I found tutorials for it online,” Lila starts speaking without being prompted. “I liked how it made everything look all warm and shadowy. We move around so much, I don’t really get to decorate my room much. This is the first time I’ve really gotten a chance to go all out.”   


“You’ve never decorated your room before?”  


“Nope,” Lila sighs. “We never stay in a city for longer than a couple of months. This is the first city we’ve decided to stay in for good, so I’m trying to get used to that. This was the first thing I wanted to do.”  


Marinette laughs. “This is lovely,” she tells her. “I would never want to leave this room.”

Lila chuckles. “Thanks. I was trying to make it seem homey. So at least when I came home everyday, it would welcoming. Like this is a place that’s always going to be here when I come back to it.”

Marinette thinks of how hard it must be to come to school for the first time after having moved around so often. She wonders if Lila isn’t used to the sensation of having a solid place that you can always come back to. She thinks of Lila making brilliant lies about herself on the first day of school to try and make as many friends as quickly as possible, and she wonders if it’s to make it impossible for people to not like her. To make sure that she’ll have someone who will want to stay because she’s so used to having to let go of important people when she inevitably has to pick up and move somewhere else. She thinks of a Lila who sobbed at the realization that Ladybug had pulled one of her friends right out from underneath her, and she thinks of a Lila who grows excited at the thought of being able to do something as simple permanently decorate her bedroom for the first time. 

She realizes that she’s been more than unfair to her, and she feels the burning need to try and do her best to fix what she’s ruined. 

Marinette crosses her legs underneath her and leans her shoulder against Lila’s, trying not to smile too hard at the feeling of Lila pressing back against her. They’re both still staring at all the glitter and all the lights in her room when Marinette asks, “What other places have you lived before this?”  


“It’s a long, boring story,” Lila tells her. “You’re not going to want to hear it.”  


“I don’t think it’ll be boring at all,” Marinette says. “Try me.”  


Lila grins and fills her chest with air as she thinks back. “Alright. Let me see if I can remember...” 


	4. Autumn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The switch from summer to autumn was when Lila’s homesickness had gotten the worst.

The switch from summer to autumn was when Lila’s homesickness had gotten the worst. 

On cold mornings, Lila would blast the space heaters in her room and make her room sweltering hot so that she could sleep on top of her covers, strip down to nothing but her underwear, and imagine that the small slots of sunlight coming in through her window were strong enough to warm and toast her skin. But she told Marinette that it wasn’t the same as being in Sicily -- the space heaters made the air too dry and there weren’t any breezes rolling in through the windows that smelled like sea salt and the sardines cooking in the kitchen from next door. Opening the windows in Paris just let in frigid air and the smell of cigarette smoke coming from the balcony just above her own. 

She showed up to Marinette’s house a few times in thermals, a thick jacket, a scarf bundled under her nose, and gloves even though it was only 13 degrees and Marinette had prepared to go outside with bare legs and an old corduroy jacket. She’d come with her teeth chattering and cheeks pink with cold, and Marinette would take pity on her, rush her into the warm bakery for a few minutes, and cheer her up with cannolis or biscotti, the only Italian pastries her father knew how to make. 

When they walked to school, their small talk inevitably turned into Lila swiping through her Facebook feed and showing Marinette all of the pictures of her friends back in Sicily still enjoying hot weather. 

“After school, we used to always go the beach and sunbathe or have picnics along the shore,” Lila told her. “And when it’s really hot in the summer, you can bring blankets up to the roofs and just fall asleep there. And then on the weekends, I would just pack some sunscreen, run down to the beaches and just go swimming or write while resting in the sun. There was always this old man who sold gelatos near the beach, and he’d always give them to me for free because he saw me everyday.” 

Of course, the beaches near Paris were too cold for Lila even in the peak of the summer, autumn made the days shorter and the weather overcast, and the frozen yogurt shops in Paris just didn’t compare. But Lila’s father had finally gotten a permanent job in Paris, and it paid much more money than anything he could ever get back in Sicily, so Paris was a permanent home from here on out. 

“It’s so frustrating” Lila sighed into Marinette’s shoulder while they were cuddling in her bed and taking a break from the French Literature homework that was still giving Lila trouble despite how well her spoken French was. “Moving around all the time was so annoying, and it’s nice to just have someplace that’s actually _ours_  for once. But I miss my old room. I miss the sand that would get caught in the stones outside our house. I miss the sun. I miss all the smells and sounds. And...you don’t know bliss until you’ve ever danced in a rainstorm on a summer night back home. It’s like nothing else you’ve ever experienced.” 

During their lunch pause one day, Lila stepped away into an empty classroom and impulsively called her aunt, telling Marinette that she simply hadn’t spoken to her in a while and she suddenly thought of her in the middle of class. Marinette saw how Lila’s shoulders dropped and a smile came to her face when she slipped back into fluent Italian and rattled on as if she was rushing to use up a muscle that she knew would be useless to her once she hung up. Marinette decided to leave her be and pulled Alya outside with her so that they could have lunch together instead. 

“Your girlfriend’s been awfully mopey lately,” Alya commented once they were heading back to Marinette’s house.   


“She misses home and I don’t know what to do,” Marinette sighed. “My mom said the same thing happened to her when she came to France for the first time, but she keeps telling me it’s something that eventually goes away as you adjust. But it seems like it’s hitting Lila really hard...”  


“I mean she’s only been here for a few months,” Alya reminded her. “Can’t imagine she’s used to the cold weather either. It only just started getting chilly out.”

“It’s just that sometimes I feel like I make it worse. When I bake Italian sweets for her, she thanks me for them and says they’re delicious, but she’ll get all sad again when she thinks about her favorite bakery from home. Or I’ll help her with her French homework and she’ll complain about how the same book made so much more sense in Italian. Like I try to get her mind off things and make it easier, but I just pull her down more memories.”

“Well, that’s not your fault babe,” Alya told her. “That’s just how homesickness works. I may not have moved countries, but moving to a whole new neighborhood and a whole new school makes you nostalgic. I hadn’t made any new memories yet. But now that I’ve been here for a while, I love it here. Because I’ve got you, and I’ve got my other friends, and I’ve made a place for myself here. Lila’s just gotta give herself time to meld into this place more.” 

“So that she feels like she’s a part of something?”  


“Kind of, yeah,” Alya agreed. “Things are always going to change and be different. You just have to learn how to love the new and the different.”  


Marinette tried to think of what she would do if she was plucked out of Paris and thrown into a different city in a different country that she wasn’t familiar with. She knew the first thing she’d try to do was find something familiar, or find something that felt safe. Find something that her attention was immediately drawn to, and try to build a home with it -- a place, a person, a hobby, whatever it was. Like Alya said, learn to love new and different things. 

That weekend, when Marinette was cleaning her room out of boredom, she found her small polaroid camera underneath a pile of discarded fabric that she’d been trying to searching for for close to two months. She tapped her nails against the side of the camera after checking that all the film was still inside when she suddenly got a silly idea. She grabbed a tote bag and filled it with string, clothes pins, thumb tacks, and her camera. She ran down to her kitchen, grabbed the batch of torrones that she’s spent all yesterday afternoon learning how to make for Lila, and hopped on the bus to head to her house. 

Lila was in her room listening to a popular Italian rock band that Marinette had never heard of, looking like she’d been laying in bed for most of the day. But Marinette laid out the sweets on Lila’s desk and took her camera out. “Look what I found!”

“Polaroid camera?” Lila frowned. “What about it?”  


“I found it in all my stuff this morning,” Marinette explained. “I thought we could try it out? It’s a little warmer today than it’s been all week. We can take a walk through the park. It’s really pretty with all the leaves turning different colors.”  


Lila turned around and eyed her bed. “I dunno. I was gonna just stay in today...”

“Aw come on,” Marinette nudged. “Get dressed and we can just stay outside for a few minutes. I don’t have very many pictures of you anyway.” She held the camera up to her face and pretended to snap pictures of Lila in her pajamas. “Hurry, otherwise you’ll just have to deal with me immortalizing you in your dorky jammies.”  


Lila rolled her eyes fondly and popped one of the torrones into her mouth. “Oh, fine, fine, let me get dressed. But just for a few minutes. I mean it.”

They headed to a park that was only four blocks east of where Lila’s apartment was. Just like Marinette had said, all the leaves in the trees had started changing color and falling onto the paths through the park, making them glow orange, yellow, and red as they walked past couples and children sitting along the benches and playing in the playgrounds. Lila looked grumpy about having to go on the outing, blowing into her hands despite the fact that it wasn’t cold in the least, but Marinette merely jogged in front of Lila and snapped a picture of her looking positively put off by their impromptu field trip. Lila blinked against the flash and glared at Marinette as Marinette took out the photo and started shaking it as it developed. “Sorry,” Marinette giggled. “You looked cute trying to keep warm in 15 degree weather.” 

“It’s cold out!” Lila snapped back with a small smirk on her face. “Leave me alone...”  


Marinette lifted the camera again. “No, no! Keep smiling! Let me get one where you’re not glaring into the camera this time.“

“I didn’t dress for a photoshoot, Marinette.”  


“Don’t care,” Marinette laughed. “Candids are always the best kinds of photos anyway.”  


“What’s gotten into you? Are you really that bored?”  


Marinette shrugged and decided to snap a picture of a few stray leaves floating down from the tree above them. “It’s Saturday. I’m always bored on Saturdays. And we haven’t spent a weekend together in a bit.”

Lila’s shoulders dropped guiltily. “Sorry,” she said. “Haven’t been feeling too chipper lately.”

“I know,” Marinette said sympathetically. “I understand.” She lifted the camera and took a quick picture of Lila smiling in response to her to her kindness and did a little cheer when the photo popped out. “And there’s the cute smile I wanted.”

“Stop taking photos when I’m not ready!”  


“But that’s the definition of candid! That’s the whole point!”  


Marinette really did mean to only stay out for a short while, but they both managed to lose track of time and stayed out in the park for close to two hours. They took a picture of them laying together in piles of fallen leaves, one of Lila walking in between the multi-colored trees, one of Marinette dancing on the park benches, a blurry one of Marinette kissing Lila on the cheek while dumping a pile of leaves on her, and one with Marinette resting her head on Lila’s shoulder while Lila smiled against the skin at Marinette’s temple. 

Once the wind started to pick up and the sun started hiding behind the clouds, they ran back to Lila’s house with pockets full of developed pictures. Not wanting to let the afternoon be over, Marinette pulled out the clothes pins and string that she brought with her from home and started to pin all of the photos they took along the string. Lila quickly caught onto Marinette’s intentions and helped her hang up the long strings of photos all around her room until Lila’s walls were covered with pictures of her and Marinette playing around in the autumn weather. 

“I know it’s not a lot of pictures,” Marinette commented. “But I thought it’d be a cool thing to start. Just....take pictures of your new life here and hang them up so you can remember all the good memories.”   


Lila smiled and ran her fingers along one of the photos on the wall that was of Marinette and Lila laying out in the grass and staring at each other with equally wide grins on their faces. “This was a really good idea,” she commented. “Thanks.”

“You just seemed so sad, I thought I’d do something to cheer you up,” Marinette explained. “I mean, I can’t exactly bring Italy back here to you and make you feel better, but I can do my best to make your time here a little better. Paris really does start to grow on you if you let it.”   


“Yeah....” Lila muttered. “Sorry I’ve been so out of it. It’s just lately things have been feeling _really_ different. And it’s a lot to adjust to.”  


“You’re allowed to take your time,” Marinette said. “I can’t imagine this is easy.”  


“No, but I appreciate you trying to make it better,” Lila said. She crawled onto her bed and wrapped her arms around Marinette who was lounging against her pillows. “I’ve been noticing you trying, and I just wanted to say thanks. You don’t need to go through all the trouble.”  


“It’s no trouble at all,” Marinette promised. “I wanna make sure you’re happy. It’s important to me.”  


Lila smirked and pressed a kiss against Marinette’s shoulder. “I am happy. And I know I’ll grow to love it here. You’ve made most of my time here nothing but pleasant. That’s definitely helped.”

Marinette felt her cheeks flushing and leaned her forehead on Lila’s shoulder, smiling into her neck. “Well, that’s a relief to hear. I was so afraid you were getting annoyed.” 

“Never,” Lila assured, pulling Marinette down to lay down next to her while she stared along her ceiling, smiling at all the glossy, colorful photos filled with smiles, kisses, and joy. “You’re way too sincere for that.”  



	5. Movies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Lila's first day at school, but she's not particularly interested in flirting with Adrien Agreste.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> an AU where Lila is actually gay as shit and the last person she wants to flirt with on her first day of school is Adrien Agreste >:P

Marinette really needed to start showing up to school on time so that she wouldn’t keep missing important developments.

She was barely in the building for fifteen seconds and Lila was all anyone was talking about. Apparently coming in two minutes before the bell rang was enough to completely miss the fact that Lila apparently knew Jagged Stone, Prince Ali, _and_ seven Hollywood directors. Chloe was the mayor’s daughter and even she didn’t have that much clout. 

She walked past Mylene -- saying something about how Lila was personally invited to the Lancôme Fall 2015 Couture Party a few months back -- and bumped shoulders with Alya. “Who on Earth is this Lila girl?”

Alya looked up from her phone and jutted her chin across the courtyard. “She just started here.”

Marinette lifted a brow and saw Nathanael talking animatedly with a girl that she didn’t recognize and happily exchanging numbers with her. “Uh huh....”

“She gave me an interview, did I tell you?” Alya grinned and pulled up the video on her phone. “Apparently Ladybug saved her life once. My Ladyblog had the most hits ever afterwards.”

Well, _that_ was something Marinette would’ve definitely remembered if it had _actually happened_. She scowled as she scanned through the video of this Lila person laughing into the camera and waxing on about this dramatic rescue that Ladybug never pulled off. “Who the heck is this girl?”

“I don’t know but she’s got the most incredible life,” Alya said. “And now she’s going here. She’s totally awesome, apparently her and Ladybug are really close friends.”  


Marinette scoffed defensively. “Um... _I’m_ close friends with Ladybug. I got you that _personal_ interview with her. You know, the one that got you a thousand new followers?”

Alya laid a hand on her shoulder. “Oh no, of course babe, and that was fantastic. But Lila has like super duper insider information on Ladybug never heard before. It’s going wild.”

“You cannot be serious,” Marinette frowned. "Where is this chick, I need to have a quick chat with -- ”  


“Oh my goodness, I don’t think we’ve met yet!”  


Marinette barely had a chance to finish her sentence before Lila practically skipped across the courtyard and slid up right next to Marinette, less than a foot away from her face. Marinette jumped in surprise and leaned her body away from her while Lila folded her hands behind her back and pinned her with a sly smirk. “U-Uh,” Marinette mumbled.

“This is Marinette,” Alya helpfully supplied. “She was that best friend I was telling you about. She’s also our Class Representative.”  


Lila’s eyes widened in interest as she laid a hand on Marinette’s shoulder, letting her thumb rub circles into her arm. Marinette’s eyes warily darted to Lila’s hand and back to her face. “Oh my gosh, that’s so cool! You must be so smart. Popular too I bet.” Lila’s eyes darted down to Marinette’s hip. “Gorgeous purse, by the way. Although, no surprises there.”

Marinette felt her mouth opening and closing like she wanted to say something, but she was too confused to let the words come out. “Oh she made it!” Alya said. “She’s a designer. A very talented one at that. She makes her own clothes and everything.”

“That’s amazing!” Lila gasped. “I bet they’re beautiful. A girl like you must have a good eye for fashion. My mother’s really close friends with Yves Saint Laurent, I’ve always had _such_ an appreciation for fashion designers and their work.”

Her saying she knew Yves Saint Laurent was almost as laughable as her claiming to have personally known Ladybug, and Marinette struggled marvelously to hold back her eye-roll. Instead she forced a smile. “That means a lot.”

“You should definitely show me your designs some time,” Lila said, lowering her voice in a way that made Marinette’s eyebrows shoot up. “It’d be a great chance to get to know you better. We are going to be in the same class, after all.”  


Marinette blinked and looked down at Lila’s hand that was now sliding down Marinette’s arm and circling around her wrist. Lila was standing _really_ close, biting the corner of her lip, staring down at her fingers that were now rubbing the back of Marinette’s hand, and peeking back up at Marinette’s face through her lashes. Did Lila talk to _everyone_ like this? She darted her eyes to Alya in a silent plead for help, but Alya was too busy telling Lila more about Marinette’s designing to even notice. It didn’t even look like Lila was paying attention to anything Alya was saying. She just kept giving Marinette these _looks_ that were making her feel inexplicably warm and monumentally nervous. 

What was _happening!?_

 _“_ Say,” Lila asked. “Do you happen to have a study block on your schedule next?”  


Marinette swallowed. “U-Um, yeah. I think so.”

“Oh perfect!” Lila grinned, grabbing both of Marinette’s hands in hers. “We can study together! This history project they gave us is a little over my head. Might be more fun if the two of us try to figure it out together.”  


“Oh, uh, I mean, that’s -- I mean, no that sounds -- “ Marinette jutted her thumb towards Alya. “I was actually going to -- ”  


“Nah, it’s cool Marinette, you two hang out. I was gonna bug Nino about our maths test next week anyway. Gives you guys a chance to bond. Thanks for the interview, by the way, Lila! Great stuff!”  


That _traitor!!_

Marinette was about to beg Alya to stay and save her from....whatever it was Lila was doing with her eyes and with her hands and with her _everything_ , but Lila was already yanking on Marinette’s wrist and taking her up the stairs towards the library. “Thanks Alya! I’ll be sure to bring this cutie pie back safe and sound for you!”

“Cutie pie?” Marinette muttered in confusion. 

“Come on, let’s try to find somewhere quiet and out of the way.” Lila giggled and tapped her finger against Marinette’s nose. “I don’t want anyone interrupting us, after all. What do you think?”  


“Er....”  


“Ah, look! This table’s perfect!”  


Lila pushed her down into one of the chairs at the study table and smoothed out the hair on the top of her head. “You stay here and I’ll go look through the shelves for the books we need, okay?”

“O-Okay?” Marinette replied. Lila winked at her and scurried off in between the shelves, leaving Marinette to sit in her chair, blink down at the study table, and take a moment to process. 

Did she just get kidnapped by the new girl? Did that actually just happen? Was she actually _letting_ it happen?

Marinette scrubbed her hands over her face. Part of her just wanted to pack up her books and leave. Lila was very obviously a liar if that fabricated Ladybug interview was anything to go by, and Marinette had a feeling that everything else she said about herself was full of nonsense too. She had no desire to associate herself with someone like that. But Lila practically latched onto her on sight, whisked her away in private, all after touching her and staring at her in a way that was really kind of weird but not entirely unpleasant and Marinette just didn’t know what to do with all this information. She only met the girl five minutes ago, and already delusions about having a quiet morning of studying were being shot to Hell. 

Lila came back and slid a small pile of books on their table and moved her chair until it was right next to Marinette’s. “So,” Lila sighed, resting her chin in her hand and staring at Marinette with sharp eyes. “Tell me about yourself, Mari. Can I call you Mari?”

“Um,” Marinette hesitated. “I....thought we were doing our history project?”  


Lila waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, don’t worry about that for now. We can talk for a bit before we start working, can’t we?”

“I guess....”  


“So you’re a designer and you’re best friends with Alya and you’re our Class Rep. Any other cool things about you I should know?”  


Marinette froze up, not used to anyone taking such a strong interest in her so quickly. “U-Um. Well, my parents own a bakery that I help run on the weekends. So I’m a pretty good baker.”

“Really?” Lila grinned. “That’s so cute! Where is it?”  


“Across the street,” Marinette explained. “Tom & Sabine’s. You probably passed right by it on the way to class.”  


“Right! They had those precious cakes in the window decorated with rose petals.”  


“Mmhm, I did those this morning.”  


Lila leaned forward and laid a hand over Marinette’s. “You made those? They’re absolutely beautiful, Marinette. I can’t believe you’re so talented.”

And there it was again, that stupid warm/nervous/tingling feeling that made Marinette want to run and stay rooted in her seat at the same time which wasn’t fair because she was really trying her best to not like this girl. Even Chloe seemed annoyed with her which was enough of a reason for Marinette to keep her distance. But Lila just kept putting herself _closer_  and asking more questions, and was it normal to feel this strange around another person you just met? A part of her really just wanted to call her out on being a liar about Ladybug, but she couldn’t do that and keep her identity a secret. Which meant that Marinette needed to come up with a better person to put distance between them. 

She tried switching topics. “It’s honestly nothing. We can talk about it after we get a start on this project, though.”

“If I visited the bakery one day, could you bake me something?”  


“S-Sorry?”  


“You know,” Lila smirked, walking two of her fingers up the back of Marinette’s hand and along her arm. “If I asked for some sweets made just for me, could you bake them for me?”  


Lila was gripping her elbow now, and a shiver went through Marinette’s body as she struggled with figuring out what to say. “Y-Y-Yeah, I, uh....you’d have to....fill out an order form first....”

Lila chuckled, and the sound was so low and sultry that Marinette inhaled sharply in response. “Absolutely. I’ll be good and fill out the form for you. On one condition.”

“What’s that?”  


“I want you to be the one to make it for me,” Lila replied, leaning in close enough for Marinette to see the mascara coated on her lashes. “Not your parents. Just you. It’d be special if it was coming from you. And it’d make me really happy.”  


Lila was darting her eyes down to Marinette’s lips and Marinette was about 0.0034756 seconds away from self-combusting on the spot. “I-I-I-I mean, I’m not uh, um. You see, I’m not as good a....a baker as my parents. Y-You’d probably want them baking instead.”

“No,” Lila said. “I want it to be you. It’ll be like a special little secret between the two of us. Wouldn’t that be fun?”  


“Y-Yeah, I guess,” Marinette said unconvincingly. She really wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying, and was instead distracted by Lila’s knee pressing against the side of Marinette’s thigh.   


“Do you like movies?” Lila asked, keeping her voice low and deep.   


What was that about trying to put distance between the two of them? Marinette was pretty sure she was failing marvelously on that end. “Who doesn’t like movies?”

“Let’s go to your house and watch some together,” Lila said, not bothering to frame it as a question. “I love rom-coms, and scary movies. Gives you an excuse to cuddle up next to someone under the blankets. It’s so dreadfully cold here compared to Italy. Cuddling up with someone as cute as you would make me feel so much better.”  


Cute? Did she just call her cute? Like actually? She didn’t think she could think back to any boys who’d ever called her cute. At least not like this when they were inches away from her face, stroking her skin, and smiling so sweetly at her. “Oh....” Marinette breathed out. 

“You’re so warm,” Lila laughed, rubbing her thumb against the sensitive skin on Marinette’s inner arm. “I bet you’re an amazing cuddler. Especially on cold nights.” She sighed and let her shoulders drop. “I wish I had someone as warm as you to sleep next to at night. Might help with the horrid homesickness.”

Marinette bit her lip and was definitely starting to feel that warmth from earlier turn into a heat that was burning on her cheeks, across her nose, and up to her ears. Her mouth was moving and words were coming out without her realizing it. “I-I could ask my mom about a sleepover.”

“Would you?” Lila asked excitedly. “Oh that would be so much fun! It can give us time to get to know each other better. And then you can ask me whatever questions you want. It’ll be such a great night. Do you have a movie in mind?”

“M-Movie?”  


“Yeah,” Lila nodded slowly. “Remember? We’re going to watch movies at your house. And you’re gonna make me something yummy from your bakery. And we’re going to cuddle together. Isn’t that right?”  


Holy crap, what did Marinette just agree to? “S-Sure, I can, uh....pick....s-something. Movie a pick. I mean, pick a movie! I mean -- ”

Lila chuckled and interrupted her rambling. She finished leaning in and placed a quick kiss on Marinette’s cheek that was just a little closer to Marinette’s lips than she was expecting. Marinette let out a small squeak and straightened up her back as LIla pulled away and licked her lips. “You’re adorable, Mari. Do you know that?” 

Marinette shook her head, the words caught in her throat and leaving her unable to speak. Lila reached up to tuck Marinette’s hair behind her ears. “Well you do now,” Lila beamed. “I’m so lucky to get to be friends with you. I already feel so at home here. Thanks for being such a sweetheart.”

“You’re, uh.....you’re welcome?”  


Lila giggled again and pulled their book towards them. “I’ve distracted you enough, darling, I’m so sorry. Come on. Let’s try and get some work done.”

They worked in silence for the rest of the period, not that Marinette could concentrate what with Lila stealing glances and sliding her foot against Marinette’s leg under the table the entire time. She was gripping her pencil so hard she was pretty sure she’d cracked the plastic casing, and worst of all she couldn’t even _say_  anything back. This felt like being around Adrien but ten times worse. 

Wait. Like being around Adrien? But she had a crush on Adrien. So did that....?

Oh. 

_Oh._

Oh no. 

No, no, no. 

When the period ended, Marinette decided to hang around a little bit and wait for Alya so that they could walk to class together. Lila pouted and looked a little put off at the news, but she waved goodbye to Marinette and headed to their next class anyway, quickly scribbling her phone number on the back of Marinette’s hand and telling her to text her after school. She walked across the library towards Alya and Nino’s study table in a daze and found the two of them packing up their bags and getting ready for their next lesson. 

“Hey!” Alya smirked. “So, how was studying with Lila.”  


Marinette furrowed her brows. “Movies....”

“What?”  


“Movies,” Marinette repeated. “Or movie. Probably movies. And baking.”  


Alya lifted a brow. “Babe, are you catatonic or something?”

“And cuddling. Oh no cuddling.” Mairnette covered her face with her hands. “Cuddling in blankets. Like on the couch? Or in my bed? She probably meant bed. Oh my God...”  


“Marinette, you are blushing like crazy, what’s the matter.”  


She breathed in deeply and peeked at Alya from in between her fingers. 

“I think I have a date.”  


**Author's Note:**

> Follow me at breeeliss.tumblr.com


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